July 29, 1875] 



NATURE 



247 



it the spectra of various metallic vapours are examined 

 till some familiarity is acquired with different spectra. 

 Finally, a polariscope is made and different objects for 

 examination are devised. Our space is more than ex- 

 hausted, and we cannot follow the teachers further in their 

 work. Time will, no doubt, bring greater experience and 

 improve an already admirable course. 



As we remarked in a former article, the good work done 

 by the Department must sooner or later indirectly affect 

 all classes. We trust the time is not far distant when the 

 pressure of public opinion will lead men and women alike 

 to feel but half educated if they have no acquaintance 

 with the living facts and solid ground of nature. The 

 happy results of such a change will soon become apparent. 

 Already, indeed, society is becoming more interested in 

 science. Some knowledge of the methods and results of 

 scientific inquiry is penetrating the population. New 

 habits of thought and modes of reasoning are spreading 

 widely. A juster estimate of the position of the scientific 

 explorer is being held. At the same time a truer know- 

 ledge of nature is diffusing more profound and doubtless 

 more reverent conceptions of the orderly mystery that 

 surrounds us. 



CARUS AND GERSTAECKERS ''' HANDBUCH 



DER ZOOLOGIES' 

 Handbuch dcr Zoologie. Von Jul. Victor Carus und 

 C. E. A. Gerstaecker. (Leipzig : Engelmann.) 



THE second volume of this work appeared in 

 1863, the first part of the first volume in 1868, 

 and at length the book is completed by the appear- 

 ance of the second part of the first volume in 1875. 

 It is somewhat late in the day to review the earlier 

 parts of the undertaking, but looking at it as a whole, 

 we do not hesitate to say that the " Handbuch " in 

 which Prof. Carus has had the chief share (the Arthro- 

 pods alone are treated by Prof. Gerstaecker) is emi- 

 nently useful and worthy of his high reputation for 

 perspicacity and practical good sense. There are few 

 men to whom zoologists both in this country as well as in 

 his fatherland, are so much indebted for solid help in 

 their labours of research or of instruction as to Prof. 

 Victor Carus. Who has not felt grateful to him for the 

 " Bibliotheca Zoologica," which bears his name ? What 

 naturalist of this generation has not consulted, as a store- 

 house of inexhaustible treasure, the " Icones Zootomicas," 

 which, after twenty years, continues to hold its place as 

 the most valuable pictorial treatise on the Invertebrata 

 which we possess ? Prof. Carus has further served his 

 countrymen by acting as the competent translator of 

 Mr. Darwin's works— and to us he has lent timely aid by 

 discharging for two years the duties of the Edinburgh 

 chair of Natural History in the absence of Prof. Wyville 

 Thomson. In an enumeration of the labours of this 

 kind for which zoologists have to thank Prof. Carus, we 

 must not omit the volume on the history of Zoology— pub- 

 lished in the Munich series of histories of the sciences — 

 a work which is full of the most interesting details of the 

 early beginnings and strange developments of the study 

 ^f animal form. 



It will not be out of place, whilst strongly recommending 

 this book to the reader as a most trustworthy, succinct, and 

 withal ample exposition of the facts of animal morpho- 



logy in especial relation to the " system " or classification 

 of the Animal Kingdom — to say a few words as to its 

 method and order of treatment. The first volume (that 

 most recently published) contains the Vertebrata, the 

 MoUusca, and Molluscoidea. The second volume treats 

 of the Arthropoda, Echinodermata, Vermes, Coelenterata, 

 and Protozoa. The groups of the animal kingdom are 

 thus discussed in a descending order, beginning with the 

 highest : at the same time each section treating of a sub- 

 kingdom is complete in itself. The section of the work 

 treating of any one sub-kingdom starts with a brief defi- 

 nition of the group of some ten or fifteen lines in length. 

 Then follow several pages treating of the characteristic 

 disposition of the various organs and their variation in the 

 following order, (i) general form, (2) integument, (3) 

 muscular system, (4) skeleton, (5) nervous system, (6) 

 organs of sense, (7) digestive canal, (8) respiratory organs, 

 (9) vascular system, (10) urinary and generative organs, 

 (11) development, metamorphoses and reproduction of 

 parts, (12) geographical and geological distribution, (13) 

 chief systems of classification hitherto-proposed, with an 

 outline of the classification adopted by the author, brief 

 definitions (about ten lines each) off the classes being 

 introduced. After this we have the detailed consideration 

 of each class, the highest being taken first. The same 

 method is adopted in the exposition of the characters of 

 the class as in the treatment of the sub-kingdom — as 

 much as twenty-four pages being thus devoted to the 

 class Mammalia. To the class follows an enumeration of 

 its orders, each order being briefly characterised in the 

 list and then taken in turn, the highest first, for more 

 detailed treatment. Some additional facts with regard to 

 each order beyond those introduced in the brief definition 

 are given when it is thus taken in its turn, and 

 under it are placed in succession with their charac- 

 teristics briefly stated, the families and sub-famiUes 

 and genera, the enumeration of the latter being cotn- 

 plete. The principal genera are characterised — referred 

 to their authors whilst synonyms and sub-genera are 

 indicated. The work goes so far into detail as to cite 

 under the genera many of the commoner or more remark- 

 able species — with a statement of the geographical and 

 geological distribution of the genus. After the descrip- 

 tion of an order or other large group, we usually find a 

 bibliographical list referring the reader to the more impor- 

 tant monographs relating to the particular group. Thus 

 the " Handbuch " furnishes us— within the limits which 

 are possible in an ever-growing science— with a treatise 

 on comparative anatomy, combined with an exhaustive 

 enumeration of the genera hitherto distinguished by 

 zoologists, referred to a definite place in a scheme of 

 classification. As the latest complete systematic treatise 

 on the Animal Kingdom, and one executed with the exer- 

 cise of most conscientious care, and a very exceptional 

 knowledge of the vast variety of zoological publications 

 which now almost daily issue from the press — this work 

 is one which is sure to render eminent service to all 

 zoologists. We can speak to the usefulness of the earlier 

 volume, from an experience of some years, and there is 

 every reason to believe that the one just completed will 

 be found as efficient. 



Having said thus much in favour of the " Handbuch," we 

 shall proceed to point out^me of its shortcomings, which 



